CHAPTER 1- Percy POV
"Annabeth!" I called
"Yea" she yelled back. She came down the stairs two at a time. "What do you need?" She asked, her gray eyes stormy."We've got company" I say. She looks out the window and sees our good friend the Minotaur. "Oh gods! Are you serious? The one time I use a cellphone!" She said exasperated.
"Why did you use a cellphone?!" I asked surprised. "I had to call my stepmom, because both of the twins are sick and I was checking up on them." She says in a rush. Then we hear a loud roar. She unsheathes her dagger while I uncap Riptide. Annabeth goes around back while I distract the Minotaur. Soon Annabeth comes up and stabs him in the back while I slice his head off. He is reduced to a pile of gold dust. We kick the dust around so he can't reform. " We can't stay in this hotel forever." I say. "This is the third monster in the past two days" I say.
"I know, but at least it's not as bad as Tartarus." She says sighing. "Annabeth, please don't bring that up I thought you were going to die" I say tears welling up in my eyes. "Seaweed brain, are you ok?" Annabeth asks concerned "I don't know, wise girl I don't know"I sigh," Can we go?! Because it worries me so much with all these monsters around us and no backup, I don't want a repeat of Tartarus." "Percy!, Kronos isn't unchained anymore, you don't have to worry" Annabeth scolds. "But I do worry. That was a one in a million chance he would be unchained! Can we please go back to camp, where we're both safer" I half yell. Annabeth throws her hands up in defeat " Gods Percy, if it makes you feel better we can go back" Annabeth said exasperated. "But at least let me sleep" she says. "Alright wise girl" I say. We crawl into bed and I swear Zeus could've heard Annabeths high pitch giggling. I started a tickle war with her. She finally regained control after the front desk called our room four times making sure everything was ok. "Go to bed seaweed brain" Annabeth mumbles. "Night, wise girl" I say. The next morning Annabeth was still asleep when I woke up at 5:00. I snuck out and went to the little cafe next to the hotel. I got donuts and cappuccinos for both of us. Annabeth was stirring when I got back upstairs so I set the donuts on the excuse for a coffee table. I went into the bathroom and freshened up. I also iris message Rachel Dare to tell Chiron to expect us. When I get back to the living room Annabeth is fully dressed. I correctly guessed that she used the pool showers while I was in the room bathroom. She was standing there eating a cinnamon glazed donut and had a whipped cream mustache from her cappuccino. She smiled at me. "Let's get going seaweed brain" she says. I pick up my duffel bag and she grasps her backpack and laptop case. We walk downstairs and ask the front desk where the nearest rental car place is. He says the hotel runs one for guests and we can drop the car at a chain hotel in Long Island. Soon Annabeth and I are crammed into a silver beetle. " Annabeth, I have no idea how to get to camp" I say. "It's alright I was expecting this" She says laughing. She pulls out Daedalus's laptop and pulls out directions to camp. It's only about an hour away so naturally it flies by. We're soon driving through the strawberry fields and we see the camp up ahead. We unload the car and park it outside the wards. We walk in, and a huge shape runs towards us. "Brother!" Tyson yells. He almost knocks me down. Chiron trots up and claps me on the back. "Do you have them?" He whispers
"Yes" I say.
"Ahhh Percy, why don't we converse in the big house" Chiron says. He pulls me towards the big house. If I don't have the right items I think I'll die.
Chiron led me towards his office in the big house, he wheels over to the desk and asks me to sit down. "Please bring out the items" he says. I take the leather pack out of my jacket, then I carefully pull out the contents. A unicorn horn, a scale from Amphitrite's tale ( that one was the hardest), and a Minotaur horn (I secretly stole it when Annabeth wasn't looking). "Why do you need these?" I ask Chiron. He gets very somber. " Our barriers are weakening" he says quietly. "They're so old they need to be remade. It's a secret ritual that can only be used with these three ingredients. The Minotaur horn at the front of the camp, the scale at the back in the lake, and the Unicorn horn in the middle, if this ritual got out people would be able to get in by doing the ritual opposite, so don't tell anyone other than Annabeth" Chiron pleads. "Will you swear on the River Styx that you won't tell anyone this procedure except Annabeth?" Chiron asks. I take a deep breath. "I swear" I whisper. "Good" Chiron says relieved. He shuffles me out of the Big house where Annabeth is waiting for me, worry written all over her face. "Are you ok? What did Chiron want?" She asks quickly. "Everything is fine, Chiron was just asking how the trip was and if everything was ok." I say. I hated lying to Annabeth but there were to many people around. I lead her towards the Poseidon cabin. We walk in and I sit on my bunk and she plops down next to me. " The real thing Chiron asked me was if I had gotten certain items for a ritual that renews our barriers" I whisper right by her ear. She nods her head in understanding. "That's why you couldn't tell me" she says. "Yea" I say. I lean over and kiss her. It was meant to be a light peck but surprisingly she deepened the kiss, and I laid her in the bed. She kept kissing me and you could light a firework with the sparks that were flying. Things got PG-13 and I was shirtless next to Annabeth breathing heavily. I was speechless, Annabeth was the first one to say anything. " That was... Wow." She says breathlessly. I reach into my pocket and feel the ring box. 'I don't know is this the right moment, we're both 19 but I just don't know' I think to myself. I realize with Annabeth out of breath and speechless she would say yes to anything. I decide to wait. I want her answer to be real, not one controlled by hormones. "I love you." Is all I say. " I love you to" She says. Suddenly the conch horn for dinner sounds. "Shit" I mumble, realizing we'll be late to dinner. Annabeth goes to the bathroom to freshen up. I put on my shirt and other clothes and brush out my hair. Once Annabeth is out of the bathroom I splash cold water on my face so I won't look so flushed. We walk to the mess hall and arrive just as everyone is sitting down. I hold Annabeth tight against my side when we sit down. Annabeth makes small talk with Piper and Leo. Suddenly a hand is waving in front of my face. "Percy, Percy snap out of it!" Piper says using a little charm speak. I instantly come to attention. "Huh." Is my awesome reply. Annabeth starts laughing. I peck her on the lips to shush her. I dig into my food. A burger and fries, with blue soda, and for dessert blue cookies. I felt a lot better after I ate a few burgers. "So, how are you and Jason?" I ask Piper. "Good, I've been stocking up on drachmas so we can IM everyday. We're going to see each other in a week, at Camp Jupiter, he can't leave his Praetor duties." She says. "That's cool, tell Jason I say hi" I tell her. "Will do" she says. Dinner ends and we decide to skip capture the flag and go straight to bed because we're so tired out from... Everything. "Night seaweed brain" Annabeth calls. "Night wise girl" I yell back.